GREEN BAY - After easily gaining approval from leaders of five suburban communities, a plan to fund $225 million in projects throughout Brown County faces significant opposition from Green Bay's mayor.

The county plan raises too many questions, and doesn't offer sufficient benefit to Green Bay, Mayor Jim Schmitt said in a letter delivered to City Council members on Friday. He said he supports concepts in the plan, but said it must do more for the city.

Proposals made by County Executive Troy Streckenbach "significantly under-serve city residents," Schmitt wrote, "thus we cannot endorse them as presented."

Objections from the mayor would put the plan at risk, provided a majority of City Council members agree with him. Without the city's support, county officials have said, the project would be dead.

Specifically, Schmitt objects that none of the $36 million earmarked for road improvements is ticketed for the city. He also raises questions about eight elements of the plan, saying county officials haven't addressed them in adequate detail.

Streckenbach insists the project would significantly benefit city residents because it includes millions of dollars for libraries, the jail, a science and technology center at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Neville Public Museum and a proposed medical examiner's office in the city.

He also said a planned $93M expo center just south of the Green Bay-Ashwaubenon line would benefit hotels and restaurants in Green Bay. The expo center would replace Shopko Hall and the nearly 60-year-old Veterans' Memorial Arena.

"Green Bay residents — who are also Brown County residents — will suffer a major disservice if this plan does not go through," Streckenbach said Sunday. "This is a very positive approach in terms of economic development, job creation, competing against other regions. If we're going to be able to compete as a region, we need to start acting like leaders.

"I hope the city of Green Bay recognizes that the county is trying to do projects in everyone's best interest."

Schmitt plans to discuss his concerns with reporters Monday morning.

His communication to the council included more than 60 pages of detail about the county's proposal. Council members were asked to keep those details confidential, though they have been published on other government websites, including Howard's.

Celestine Jeffreys, Schmitt's chief of staff, said Sunday that the confidentiality request was made because "it is not a signed document to us."

Green Bay's City Council, meanwhile, is slated to discuss the matter Tuesday night, according to an agenda posted to the city's website Sunday. The council meets at 7 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall, 100 N. Jefferson St.

Supporters of the county plan had expressed fears last week that city officials might try to "hold the project hostage" by insisting that they wouldn't approve the use of excess room tax money unless the proposal was reworked to include more spending within the city.

The city already derives some benefit from room tax money; funds from room taxes help fund the $20 million expansion of the KI Convention Center downtown.

Funding for the expo center hinges on Green Bay and six other municipalities OKing the use of some of the money collected as a tax on hotel and motel guests.

Support for the project so far has been widespread. County supervisors last month OK'd the measure 23-3, and the five municipalities that have considered the room-tax question have approved it overwhelmingly.

Also Sunday, the Brown County Taxpayers' Association called on the city to slow the room-tax discussion in favor of "a proper evaluation and discussion" of the issue.

"We request that you do what a majority of the Brown County Board did not do: slow this careening train down, ask the obvious questions, demand answers, and, most of all, advocate for the best interests of your 9,000 tax-paying respective constituents," the association said in an email addressed to City Council members and emailed to reporters. "You were elected to do their bidding — not the county’s."

Some of the concerns Schmitt raises:

» The size of the proposed expo center

The county has recommended the largest of three options presented in a study released this year. Schmitt says he needs more information about projected attendance and revenue figures.

» The center's cost

County figures estimate it at $93 million. Exact costs will likely be influenced by the specific design, and construction costs at the time the center was being built.

» What becomes of any excess sales tax that is collected

Streckenbach said the County Board could opt to end the tax early if fundraising goals are met, or could decide to use excess money for debt-reduction or tax-relief. But he said he would be surprised if collections in six years would much exceed the figure needed to fund everything in his proposal.

City officials are said to be interested in that money — the so-called "excess of the excess" — staying in Green Bay.

» Details on the library projects

File/Press-Gazette Media

The proposal calls for a total of $20 million in upgrades to four libraries: The central library in downtown Green Bay, plus branches in Pulaski, Ashwaubenon and on Green Bay's east side.

On Sunday, Streckenbach said he envisions investing $10 million to $15 million for the central library and $2 million to $4 million each for Ashwaubenon and East Branch, but said he intends to follow the recommendation of the independent board that oversees the county's libraries. Pulaski's branch, which is much smaller, would get $1 million in upgrades.

A possible point of contention: What should be done with East Branch, in aging leased space off Main Street. County supervisors seemed recently to favor enlarging and remodeling the current building, but Schmitt seems to feel differently.

Kyle Bursaw / Press-Gazette Media

"The city has been an outspoken proponent of moving the East Branch to a new regional center being created with the redevelopment of East Town Mall," he wrote.

County leaders seem cool to that idea. They say proposed rents are expensive, parking appears limited and entryways are inconvenient for elderly users.

» Details on proposed Neville Public Museum upgrades

Streckenbach would spend about $1 million for a new permanent exhibit on the second floor of the building on the Fox River at Dousman Street.

The Neville Public Museum of Brown County.

The Neville Public Museum of Brown County.

Adam Wesley/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

The city, Schmitt writes, "also has been pushing for residential development of the (Neville) parking lot, which could help provide a more sustainable funding mechanism."

Streckenbach says such development would create a new problem: A lack of parking.

» Details on proposals to improve the county fairgrounds and parks

File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Schmitt suggests that some of the money in the proposal could help fund a long-discussed swimming-pool project on Green Bay's west side.

"The county has not provided any details regarding the potential location, scope and timing of any improvements," he wrote. "Funds from the sales tax could support the redevelopment of the Colburn Pool."

Streckenbach seemed skeptical about that idea, which city officials have debated for years. He said city residents attend, and benefit from, events at the fairgrounds and other county parks.

At a glance

Streckenbach proposes $60 million for road and bridge work, $20 million to expand the county jail, $20 million to upgrade libraries in Green Bay and two other communities, $10 million to open a medical examiner's building, $10 million to maintain the buildings in the arena complex, $6 million to improve parks and the fairgrounds, $5 million for a proposed STEM center and $1 million for a new permanent exhibit at the Neville Public Museum.

Funding would come from multiple sources. Excess "room tax" — money charged to hotel and motel guests — would fund much of the expo center, with naming rights sold to cover the rest. Much of the remainder would be financed by a 0.5-percent sales tax slated to go into effect Jan. 1 and last no more than six years.

Allouez, Ashwaubenon, De Pere, Howard and Suamico have voted "yes" to the room-tax proposal. Leaders of those communities have urged Green Bay to support the plan.